I like him, but for me, it’s Stephen King, a lot of his stories he goes off on a twenty page non-relevant rant.

Though, the ones where he keeps that to a minimum, are great.

Then there’s Mr. Marketer James Patterson who markets out his name to other authors making it look like he wrote the book when it was obviously someone else.

  • Master_Ryan_Rahl@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    Im going to give a hot take here;

    JRR Tolkien. The man wrote one book. He wasnt really an author. He was a D&D DM that decided he needed to make more content for his table and just never stopped working on it because he didnt have a group to play with.

    Im not trying to attack the man or put down his place of importance. But i do think that as far as what makes a good author, he dont really fit the bill.

    • amyriadofhorses@alien.topB
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      10 months ago

      So, Tolkien was a highly talented linguist with a focus in Germanic languages and culture. He created an entire language and world based on those languages. He also wrote more than just one book. Your ignorance of Tolkien could fill up an entire book, though.

    • SlowMovingTarget@alien.topB
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      10 months ago

      He wrote several books (but you knew that).

      D&D exists in large part because of what he wrote, not the other way around. He wrote what he wrote because he wanted to create a modern myth for the English-speaking world, an ambition which he succeeded in.

      As for language and the shape of the words, the tone of LotR is unique, and distinctly different from The Hobbit or even The Silmarillion. There is beauty and timelessness in the prose that many editors would just not allow for these days.

      Few have been able to even come near what he did in creating his system of names, places, and world building. Tolkien’s work is the high bar against which all other world building is measured.

      Even if he’d only written Lord of the Rings, at 579K words, it’s roughly equivalent to 6 or 7 full-length novels. Being an author wasn’t his primary job, he was a linguist by training. But he certainly was a “real author” as we have his books to prove it.

      So troll successful, I guess.

      • Proglamer@alien.topB
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        10 months ago

        Yeah, yeah, he was an innovator. So was Henry Ford with his Model T, but in the year 2023 for commuting you would choose a Toyota over the ‘T’ 100.0% of the time.

      • Master_Ryan_Rahl@alien.topB
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        10 months ago

        Bro its not a troll and i specifically said it wasnt a slight. Jesus. Im not literally disputing that he was an author and to imply i was is going out of your way to assume im am idiot or malicious. Maybe calm down.